Revisionism Anyone?
Yesterday (11/19/09) on Capital Hill, Rep. Kevin Brady R-Texas got into a little a little “tiff” with Timothy Geithner (Treasury Secretary) during a Joint Economic Committee hearing.
It seems that Rep. Brady rankled Mr. Geithner a bit by insisting that he resign, blaming him for rising unemployment, growing federal deficits and accounting flaws in the number of stimulus jobs created, among other economic problems.
All of the articles that I’ve read about the exchange focused on how unusually forceful Mr. Geithner was and how hot the debate ended up getting. Included in most articles is this statement by Mr. Geithner:
“The economy fell into the worst crisis in generations after almost a decade — certainly, eight years — of basic neglect of basic public goods, in health care, in education, in public infrastructure, in how we use energy.”
Whaaaaaat? I thought it was a credit crunch, lax regulation, an irresponsible banking system colluding with a
n irresponsible public piling on debt they couldn’t afford to buy things they didn’t need. Since when was the current economic crisis caused by not addressing health care? Or education? Or how we use energy? That’s pretty far out there… even for you Tim.
Seriously, Timmy… If this is what you believe caused the economic crisis, then maybe you should step down. That kind of a statement is either simple felony stupid or reckless historical revisionism to get political points.
